Seventy IMCA Modifieds were on hand to do battle with each and every race being important to the eventual outcome. Six heat races would transfer three cars each and three B-Mains would find four cars each moving on to complete a thirty-car starting field for the $2,000-to-win twenty-five-lap Harris Clash. Usually I write about the feature first and then fill in notes from there, but in this offering I am going to report the events chronologically to hopefully illustrate just how good the racing was from beginning to end.
Heat One – Jay Schmidt drew the lowest number in the pill bag to start from the pole and he checked out for the win. Robert Tippery of Council Bluffs, a rookie in the division for 2010 after stepping up from the Sport Mods, was impressive running second holding off the charge of Josh Foster. Foster, the two-time defending track champion at the Lee County Speedway and the current point leader on the Hawkeye Dirt Tour, started seventh and quickly moved to third but could not get by Tippery to move into a re-draw position over the final laps.
Heat Two – Oh this is nice, the kid who pulled in from North Carolina and has been here all week waiting out the weather drew the outside front row. We’ll see how long he can keep up. Little did I know that Kyle Strickler has already rung up fourteen feature wins this season and he was definitely ready for his Knoxville debut. Nate Caruth grabbed the eary lead, but Strickler who is apparently known as “The High Side Tickler” made the pass of Caruth and then held off Vern Jackson to take an impressive victory. Eric Dailey came from the inside of row five to snare the third and final transfer spot.
Heat Three – Defending Harris Clash champion Jay Noteboom wasted no time coming from row two to take the lead and drive away with a convincing win. The race for third was intense throughout as David Brown tried to fight off challenges from Jake Durbin, Tim Murty and Randy Havlik and the caution waved when Durbin spun in turn four. On the restart Havlik took control of third and eventually nipped Levi Nielsen at the checkers for that second re-draw position.
Heat Four – Mark Elliott started from the pole and checked out for a dominating win. Jordan Grabouski would chase him in for second while the battle for third would come right down to the closing lap. David Murray Jr. had started eleventh and was up to fourth needing one more pass to make the show and it was Ryan Ruter who was in his sights. Murray pulled even with Ruter going down the backstretch on the final lap and he dove into turn three low and hard before drifting up to the cushion, a classic Knoxville slidejob. Ruter hopped the cushion and climbed the guardrail cutting down his right rear tire and he would never make it to the checkers going from a qualifying spot to last in just a few seconds. Richie Gustin, who started eighth, would have to come back in a B-Main after finishing fourth.
Heat Five – Pole-sitter Chris Abelson and sixth-starting Todd Inman both had great starts and were running one-two down the backstretch on the first lap. Abelson and Inman would drive away from the field to the checkers. Jimmy Gustin was running a strong third when he slowed suddenly on lap five and pulled to the infield. Jeremy Mills would come back from a poor start to qualify third. J.J. Wise moved from tenth to fourth holding off a twelfth-starting Johnny Saathoff at the checkers, but both would have to try again to qualify out of a B-Main.
Heat Six – Bill Davis Jr. was a rocket. Starting ninth on the eleven-car grid, Davis pass several cars in turns one and tow on the first lap and then blew by early leader Mike Fluegel coming off of turn two on the second trip around the half-mile. He was gone but the shuffle for the two remaining qualifying spots was entertaining with Jeff Jones and Michael Long making the transfer.
The heat races were completed at 7:45 and after a fifteen-minute break we were ready for three B-Mains that would be the equivalent of feature events on most nights.
B-Main One – Nate Caruth moved to the lead at the outset before front-runners Josh Gilman and Bub Larette tangled in turn one. On the restart Caruth again was the class of the field while the battle behind him was being waged. Todd Shute moved into the second spot and former Clash winner Clayton Christensen was running third before smoke billowed from his car with just three laps remaining. This moved Mark Schulte up to third and Mike O’Lear passed Tyler Vandekamp in the final two laps to qualify in fourth.
B-Main Two – Richie Gustin was on cruise control in this one building nearly a half-lap advantage before the checkers waved. David Brown was again under fire from several drivers, but this time he was successful in holding back their efforts to finish second. The only Wisconsin driver to pull down for the Thursday show, Dan Ratajczak finished in third while Jake Durbin clawed his way forward from row number five to finish fourth.
B-Main Three – Johnny Saathoff, Cory Wray and J.J. Wise started in the top three and finished that way while the driver to watch was Jimmy Gustin. Starting seventeenth on the grid, Gustin only had twelve laps to make it to fourth if he wanted a shot at the big money and he methodically made his way toward the front. Over the final three laps he tried every racing line that he could to try to get around J.D. Auringer for that one last transfer position, but Auringer did not make a mistake and relegated Jimmy to being a spectator for the main event.
The Harris Clash – After another short break to allow the B-Main transfers to prepare, the thirty-car starting field assembled on the front straightaway under an absolutely beautiful sunset in the western sky. Jay Schmidt continued to display his skills on the draw as he pulled out the pole position with Mark Elliott set to start next to him on row one. As the field thundered into turn one after the drop of the green, it was Todd Inman who again had a great start and moved from inside of row two to the lead down the back stretch. Elliott had not trailed a lap yet tonight and he wasn’t about to start now riding the cushion around three and four to sweep past Inman and officially lead lap number one. The advantage grew quickly, but was erased just as fast when the caution waved on lap six for debris up in turn two. On the restart both Jeff Jones and Jordan Grabouski tried to keep Elliott close, but as they raced each other for second the leader once again began to pull away. As the laps clicked off the dominance of Elliott showed and Grabouski was now comfortably in second, but there was plenty of two and three-wide racing action behind them to keep the crowd well entertained. Several drivers were on the move and making their way to the front including Josh Foster, David Murray Jr., Jeremy Mills and Richie Gustin. Foster had started thirteenth, Murray was coming from fifteenth, Mills had lined up sixteenth and Gustin had started twentieth and all four drivers were slicing their way through the other competitors while also battling amongst themselves along the way. Once they were up into the top seven you almost wished for a caution flag so that you could see what might happen, but as I thought that I felt bad about it since Elliott had been so strong all night and deserved the victory. Just as this inner-conflict took shape, Jones who was running fifth spun at the exit of turn two and came to a stop on the apron and inside the berm the runs along the inside of the turns at Knoxville.
The green flag stayed out as Jones fired up his #19J and drove dejectedly to the pits, but just a moment later Murray caught the cushion wrong in turn and smacked the guardrail. The caution waved with just two laps remaining, Elliot’s insurmountable lead was wiped out, the contenders were assembled close behind him and the crowd moved to the edge of their seats for the green-white-checkers conclusion. Elliott stormed into turn one and started to rebuild that lead coming off of turn two, but then it appeared that he had a fuel pickup problem or something as he slowed going down the back stretch. Grabouski jumped to the cushion and to the lead in turn three with Gustin hot on his bumper, while Elliott came back to speed racing through the turns now in third. The problem reared its ugly head again down the frontstretch though and Elliott’s once apparent victory would now go to someone else as he faded back through the field to finish fifteenth. Grabouski and Gustin raced side-by-side into turns one and two for the final lap with Mills and Foster right behind and ready to take advantage of any mistake. Going into turn three Gustin hit his marks perfectly and set the car in just right to pull ahead of the Nebraska hotshoe off of four and claim the thrilling victory. Grabouski would settle for being the runner-up with Jeremy Mills taking third, Josh Foster fourth and it was Johnny Saathoff, who started twenty-first nipping Michael Long at the line for fifth. The rest of the finish was a scramble as Randy Havlik slowed suddenly coming to the stripe sending drivers scrambling for an opening that unfortunately not all of them found. The cars of Havlik, Vern Jackson, Strickler and a couple more wound up sitting on the track just past the checkers with damage, but luckily no injuries. A full rundown of the official results can be found on the Knoxville Raceway website.
After catching our breath, Morgan and I made our way out of the grandstand thoroughly impressed with how the evening unfolded. We saw seventy race cars involved in nine qualifying events where every lap and very position counted on a track where drivers could run any number of different lines. The show started on time, there were a minimal number of cautions (thanks to some drivers who, if they spun on their own, were enough of a sportsman to start it up and continue on), the breaks that were needed were brief and the feature race was excellent. All of this and we were on our way home at 9:15!
A big thanks to Bob Harris for the hospitality that he extended to the entire PositivelyRacing.com crew and to all involved who continue to make the Harris Clash a “must-see” event. Following are some shots that our own Barry Johnson took from his vantage point down in turn one.
Jeff Jones (19J) and Jordan Grabouski race for second early in the main event - Barry Johnson photo
Randy Havlik (3z) had a solid top ten finish before slowing coming to the checkers. Here he races with eventual winner Richie Gustin - Barry Johnson photo
David Murray Jr. (97m) and Josh Foster put on quite a show as they raced toward the front, but it was Murray who would necessitate the late-race caution after he hit the turn one guardrail - Barry Johnson photo
Mark Elliott had things well in control until apparent mechanical issues slowed him up for the final two laps - Barry Johnson photo
Richie Gustin started 20th and finished first to collect the $2,000 top prize at the Harris Clash - Barry Johnson photo
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